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Local SEO Tips: Guide to Dominating Local Search 2021

by | Nov 23, 2020 | Digital Marketing

If you want local SEO tips, you should first know what it means. Proximity is one of the major factors consumers consider in making a purchase. This is where local SEO comes to play. Simply put, local SEO is all about optimizing your website and its content so that your business appears higher in local search engine result pages (SERPs) versus competitors in your area. 

Local SEO helps your target audience discover your business. Unlike SEO, which is a more general approach to search engine optimization, Local SEO is more focused on the audience near your business, and in your community. This is helpful especially for businesses like restaurants, brick-and-mortar stores, pet grooming, home services, etc.

Remember that thick directory book your mother keeps by the telephone back in the 90s to early 2000s? The Yellow and White Pages Directory lists down all of the nearby businesses and their relevant info (such as phone numbers and addresses) in one’s area. 

While we rarely see anybody use this directory anymore, we have Google. Google is the new Yellow Pages. We all go to Google to find businesses or anything we want to get information on. 

Did you know that 50% of local business searches done on mobile phones translate to actual store visits within 24 hours of searching? Also, about 18% of local mobile searches lead to a sale within a day and 68% of searchers used the ‘get directions’ or ‘call now’ buttons to reach or contact the local business. That is the power of local SEO.

If you want to learn some local SEO tips, this is a quick guide for you. 

 

Guide to Local SEO

 

Keyword Research

The main goal of your Local SEO strategy should be making it easy for potential customers to find your business. You want your business to show up in local results for near me searches through keyword research.

Start your research with service in location (SiL). Take all of the products or services you offer and add “in [location]”. Once you have your search terms, use a tool like the Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs Keyword Explorer to check the keyword volume and keyword difficulty.

Keyword volume shows how many people are searching for those key terms. Keyword difficulty, on the other hand, shows how hard it is to rank for a specific search term. To find the best keywords to target, prioritize keywords that have low difficulty and a high search volume.

 

Google My Business Optimization

Google prioritizes businesses that have basic information listed on their platform and were able to verify. 

To rank in local results and Google Maps searches, you need a Google My Business (GMB) listing. Make sure your listing includes all vital information such as business name, phone number, website, hours, physical location or service area, and  business category.

Precision and consistency is crucial for Google. Make sure your website’s information and the information on your Google listing are the same along with any other profiles you’ve created under your business name. If you change addresses, make sure you update your listing.

 

On-page SEO

On-page SEO is the process of optimizing landing pages so your website ranks better on search engines. Best practice for on-page SEO includes:

  • Including exact match keyword in the URL path
  • Feature the keyword in the title tag
  • Limit keyword density to at most 3%
  • Use the keyword in the meta description

If your business has more than one location, it is best to create a local landing page for each service area. For example, if your company provides services in Los Angeles (business.com/los-angeles) and Murrieta (business.com/murrieta), creating specific location pages for each can help improve visibility and increase your ranking in the local searches in both areas.

However, do not create hundreds of local landing pages unless you really do provide service in that area. This will dilute your results and may hurt your trust factor. And do not just duplicate the content and change out the location.  Each page must offer unique, location specific content.

 

Local citations

Local citations are online references and help users to discover local businesses. It can also impact local search engine rankings. It’s also known as NAP which stands for name, address, and phone number. 

Local businesses are free to manage as many citations as they want to ensure accuracy of data. It may include review sites like Google and social sites like Twitter and Facebook. 

Make sure all mentions and local citations reflect the same information as your GMB and your website. As we’ve said earlier, Google loves consistency, therefore your provided contact info should be the same throughout your listings and citations to strengthen your local search position. 

 

Online reviews

Reviews also form a key part of online reputation management. Responding to both negative and positive reviews on review sites or citation sites is a good representation of how you care about your customers. 

Encourage customers to write testimonials on their experience with your products or services and make sure to acknowledge or feature them in return.

Have you followed these local SEO tips and still feel like you need help improving your business’ standing in the local market? Contact Public Advertising Agency today. We are a local SEO company which helps small to medium businesses succeed online.

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